I have been watching Phantasm since I was seventeen years old. My older brother showed it to me on a battered VHS tape he'd found in a charity shop, and I spent the next two hours in a state of genuinely unsettled fascination that I have been chasing in horror films ever since, mostly unsuccessfully. Phantasm does something that very few horror films manage: it operates on dream logic, on the particular texture of nightmare rather than the mechanics of conventional fear, and it does so with a low budget and an absolute commitment to its own strange vision that I find endlessly compelling.
The Tall Man is the reason. Angus Scrimm's performance is one of the great unsung achievements of horror cinema — a villain of genuine menace and genuine strangeness, whose presence in a scene changes the quality of the air. He is not a slasher. He is not a monster in the conventional sense. He is something older and stranger and more unsettling, and he has lived in my imagination for twenty years.
I had given up hoping for a Tall Man Funko Pop!. Phantasm is beloved but it is not mainstream. It does not have the cultural footprint of Freddy or Jason or Michael Myers. I had accepted that the Tall Man would remain unrepresented in my horror collection, a gap I'd stopped expecting to fill.
And then the figure was announced, and I pre-ordered it within the hour, and I felt something I can only describe as vindicated.
Twenty Years of Cult Horror Collecting
My horror shelf is a document of my taste, which runs toward the cult and the overlooked rather than the canonical. I have the obvious icons — you can't have a horror shelf without them — but the pieces I'm most proud of are the ones that require explanation. The figures that make people say "who's that?" and give me the opportunity to tell them about a film they haven't seen but should.
The Tall Man is the ultimate version of that. Phantasm has a devoted following, but it is genuinely obscure by mainstream horror standards. Finding a Funko Pop! of the Tall Man is the kind of thing that makes a cult horror collector feel seen in a way that doesn't happen often. Someone at Funko watched Phantasm, understood why it matters, and decided it deserved a figure. That decision is not nothing.
The Figure Itself
The Funko POP Movies Phantasm Tall Man Vinyl Figure captures the character in the authentic Funko Pop! aesthetic — the 9cm scale, the signature oversized head, the stylised features that work within the format's constraints. The Tall Man's distinctive look — the dark undertaker's suit, the particular quality of his presence — translates well to the Pop! format. He is immediately recognisable to anyone who knows the film, which is the essential test.
The window display box is the standard collector packaging, clear front panel, figure fully visible without opening. He arrived in perfect condition after the pre-order wait, which I had been tracking with more attention than I'd like to admit.
The 9cm scale places him at the same height as the rest of my horror collection, which matters for display coherence. He stands among the other figures as an equal, which is appropriate. The Tall Man is not a lesser villain than the icons. He is simply a less famous one.
When He Arrived
I placed him on the shelf the evening he arrived. I'd been thinking about where he would go for the entire pre-order period — I'd cleared a space at the front, slightly elevated on a small stand I'd bought specifically, so he would have the height his character demands. The Tall Man should be tall, even at 9cm.
I called my brother — the one who showed me the film twenty years ago on that charity shop VHS — and told him. He was quiet for a moment and then said "finally." That's the right response. That's exactly the right response.
I sent him a photo. He sent back: "Boy." Which is what the Tall Man says in the film, in that particular voice, and which is the correct thing to say when you see the figure for the first time. My brother and I have been quoting Phantasm at each other for twenty years. Some things don't change.
What It Means to Have It
There's a particular satisfaction in owning a collectible of something obscure that you love — a satisfaction that's different from owning a figure of a mainstream character. It's the satisfaction of recognition, of having your specific taste acknowledged by the existence of an object. The Tall Man Funko Pop! says: this film matters. This character matters. The people who love Phantasm are real and their love is worth catering to.
I've watched Phantasm twice since the figure arrived. Both times I've looked at the shelf while watching and felt the particular pleasure of the film and the figure existing in the same space. That's what the best collectibles do. They deepen your relationship with the thing they represent.
My Verdict
If you know Phantasm, you already know you need this. If you don't know Phantasm — watch it, then come back and get the figure. The Funko POP Movies Phantasm Tall Man Vinyl Figure is a beautifully rendered tribute to one of horror cinema's most distinctive and underappreciated villains.
Find him in our Toys collection and our wider Toys & Games collection. Boy.
— Declan Farrow
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